The One the Doctor Forgot
by MissRon
Summary: What if the Doctor had found the greatest love of his life, and to save his life, was forced to give up the memory of her?  New story, new character, and basically just a what if story.
1. PART ONE  Prologue

**I adore the 10th Doctor and even though Matt Smith is doing an absolutely incredible job, and the show has taken on a much more mature feel, I still find myself longing for the slightly more carefree doctor that was #10. I was a huge fan of the Doctor/Rose relationship and while not completely satisfied with the resolution the writers gave them, it was enough. But I got to thinking. Wouldn't it be interesting if the tables were turned? What if for once it was the Doctor having his memory and life adjusted and someone else had to bear the burden of remembering for him? So I decided to write a love story of the one the Doctor forgets. This is a whole new character, but she is based during the same time as Rose. Basically, what if it isn't Rose the Doctor loved but some other?**

**This story is based after the events of series 1-4, but is based on those series. It's set after the doctor has died, after he reached his last regeneration and lived to the end of his very long life. My new character is married to the human Doctor. I hadn't intended for this to be more than just one chapter but the moment I started writing, I knew that somehow there might be at least three chapters.**

**Hope you enjoy it...**

**The One the Doctor Forgot**

**PART ONE**

It was so strange to be standing in the TARDIS and to not have him there, his voice floating through the control room as he described planets where they had 5 moons and one made completely from emerald. So strange to have her be so silent and to know that it's because she grieves for her friend. The fact that I have inherited the TARDIS breaks my heart all over again after I had spent so long rebuilding it, even if I knew this day would one day come. It's true that for me only a handful of years have passed since the events that lead me to meet, fall in love with, and then be parted from the Doctor. Not long at all, even by human standards. But for him, who knows how much time had passed? Fifty years or 500 years i don't yet know but from what the TARDIS has managed to tell me so far his final regeneration was reached several years ago and just recently, he finally came to rest. Tears pricked hot behind my eyes and i blinked rapidly to try and stave them off.

I walked around the control hub of the TARDIS, the heart if you like, and took in the changes that had occurred. The Doctor had explained to me once that when a timelord regenerates, so too does his or her TARDIS, almost as if a new man deserves a new car, so to speak. I ran my hands over the controls and smiled. She hadn't changed too much really; she was still most definitely the TARDIS, but maybe a little sleeker and less 'put together' than she had been on my first arrival. She was still 'sexy', as he used to like to say, and standing inside her once again, i felt like i had come home. I had missed her, this crazy time and space machine that was bigger on the inside than she was on the outside, that was stuck looking like a police box from the 1960's and who made a noise that either filled you with relief or devastation. So many adventures i had had with the old girl, together with the doctor and Rose, and at times Mickey. Knowing that she was now mine, that he had bequeathed her to me, touched me more than anything had ever touched me before.

Although my husband told me long ago that after the events of Doomsday, as we called it, he instructed the TARDIS to find me in the event of his death so that i would have some part of him and because he trusted me with her, i had come to believe that due to being stuck in a parallel universe this was an instruction that could never be fulfilled. I was glad to discover i was wrong. It seemed as though the old girl had many skills and ways around frivolous things like rules and physics, and i pet her lovingly. As i hovered near the screen, pausing before beginning the process of discovering what he had gotten up to in the years since we saw one another, i was struck by the realisation that i was now the owner of the TARDIS. Me! A silly Australian girl who met a man in a box while staying with a friend in England. I had never dreamed how my life would change when i went to England several years ago for a working holiday and even saying it like that it sounded so hollow, so boring, so ordinary and domestic. The air rushed out of my lungs and so many emotions swept through me as i allowed all the memories to come flooding back. So much i had repressed, just so i could make it through the day without feeling as though i were sliced in half. It had been years since it cut this keenly, having married my beautiful human Doctor, but no matter how happy i was now, i could never, and would never, erase the years that occurred before.

Swinging the computer screen to a better height, i began the search for the doctor. As events and TARDIS records swept across the screen, i skimmed the information. I smiled at some parts, cried at others, and raged with anger at what life had put the doctor through. How much loss and devastation could one man take? Not much more, i realised as i added up the years the doctor had lived after our parting. To have reached over 900 in 9 lifetimes and to have gone through the remaining few in less than half that time showed a man who had stopped caring, who became reckless and careless, and who had lead a life of solitude, even when surrounded by friends and companions. Tears again pricked hot behind my eyes and i let them come. They flowed down my cheeks as all the grief and long suppressed feelings poured out of me and i sank to the floor. This man had changed my life, this man had given me a new and wonderful life and i remembered every wonderful moment, cherished each one fully, and it was so cruel that he had to forget. You see, this is the real story. Not the story of how i got the TARDIS, not the story of how i came to marry my beloved husband, but the story of how the Doctor forget, to save his life.


	2. PART TWO  YEAR ONE

PART TWO

I had completed university back home in Australia and couldn't stand the idea of going straight into full-time work after having spent essentially 16 years in full-time schooling. I applied for a working holiday visa to England and was elated when i was accepted. I bought my one way plane ticket, packed a few essentials, and headed toward what i thought would be an exciting 2 years. How i underestimated that. Upon my arrival i found a retail job in a shop in London and relished being surrounded by so much history and culture. It was there i first met Rose Tyler.

I envied her the moment i laid eyes on her. Skinny, blonde, gorgeous and with a smile that melted even my heart i avoided her at first, believing that she would be just another snobbish, mean-spirited bimbo like so many of the others girls at the shop were. Don't get me wrong, i had made so many wonderful friends in my short time in London but for some reason, certain ones seemed distrustful of me. I assumed it was because i was a foreigner, or because i was perceived as a threat somehow but i didn't let it bother me too much. After several weeks observing her however, i quietly came to like this small pink and yellow girl. The day i joined her for lunch was one of the best things i had ever done in my life. For if i had not done so that day, it is possible that i would never have met the Doctor.

Soon after that lunch time meeting we became the best of friends and i often found myself curled up on the couch at her mothers flat, drinking tea and laughing with her mother, Jackie. Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, often joined us and i became quite content with the little life i was making for myself. Before I knew it almost a year had passed and i spent a glorious Christmas and New Years wrapped in friendship and love. I thought i had finally reached the peak of my life; great job, travel, wonderful friends, a family (as i had none back home), and the rest of my life stretched out before me. How small that all looks now, with hindsight and knowing what i now know. It was a great life, don't get me wrong, but compared to the life the universe had prepared for me it was almost nothing. The night Rose worked the late shift, i was meant to be at the movies; instead i offered to swap shifts with one of the other girls because Rose hated her and dreaded having to share the same shift. This was a decision i have never regretted.

Walking toward the door to leave that evening, the security guard rattled a bag of money in Rose's face. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the bag and we headed toward the lift to take the lottery money to Wilson who was in the basement. Reaching our destination, we were put on guard by the fact that it was both eerily quiet and there were strange noises and clatterings. Calling Wilson's name, Rose and i went to see if we could find him. Walking slowly through the basement area, i was struck by the fact there were a lot, and i mean a LOT of creepy mannequins down there. I was sure there hadn't always been that many. Shrugging off the creepy feeling they gave me, i followed Rose as we continued the search. Suddenly, the doors banged shut behind us and we found ourselves locked in. The apprehension in Rose's voice as she started talking out loud to 'whoever was there' was evident and it was then it happened. Out the corner of my eye, i saw one of the mannequins move. Turning to look at it, fear rose within me as it began to walk toward us. Turning to get Rose's attention, i saw that she to was already aware of the fact as a second dummy was on the move. Soon, too many of the shop mannequins were moving menacingly toward us. Cornered, i started to reach for the vacuum cleaner pole leaning against the wall, and that's when it happened. Warm flesh met my hand as another hand slipped into mine. Startled, i looked up and found myself looking into the face of a man with beautiful blue eyes. Looking back at me, his eyes almost twinkled as he said one word; "Run". Grabbing Rose's hand we did just that.

The historical data that exists for this event is pretty accurate actually. Really not that much changed, except that i no longer appear in it, nor any of the events over the next 2-4 years. So many adventures, so many things happening, and no-one to remember them except me. Well me and my human doctor.

After saving the Doctor and the world from the Auton's, Rose, Mickey and I found ourselves standing outside the doctors crazy police box and he offered to let us go with him. Looking at each other, Rose and I ached to go but Mickey, poor sweet Mickey, was terrified and convinced Rose to stay. I was quite insecure then and the thought of travelling alone with a man i just met who owned a spaceship that looked like a police box and who i knew nothing about was a bit more than i could do alone so i refused him also. Almost sadly, he bid us farewell and left. Seconds later he reappeared, came to the door and informed us it travelled through time also. This time there was no holding back. Kissing Mickey one last time, Rose grabbed my hand and we ran toward the Doctor; toward the TARDIS, toward adventure and toward events that had now forever changed my life.

Over the next year, so much happened. Alien invasion of London, the death of the Earth, meeting the gorgeous, irresistible Jack Harkness, saving and then losing Rose's dad and finding the last Dalek; so much that brought the three of us together and formed a bond that was greater than anything i had ever known, but none of it compared to the Doctor himself. It's true that the 9th version of himself wasn't the best looking. He had big years, a big nose and the funniest northern accent i had ever heard. How an alien came to sound British i never knew, and that accent in particular made me giggle. None of it mattered however, because by the time we encountered the Dalek, i was already besotted. I had never known anyone like him; so full of energy, knowledgeable, kind, passionate, lonely, gentle, caring. So much wrapped up in the skin of a man who was the last of his people. The TARDIS records pretty much everything for historical data so that when one day her journey ends, others will remember the history of how the universe came to be what it is. She didn't record the small moments however, whether it be for privacy sake or because archaeologists just wouldn't care i don't know. I never did ask her. It was in those small moments that it happened. Talking about my life with him, sharing insights into life and the universe with us, the three of us always reaching for more of each other almost as though if we knew all there was to know, we could finally understand this crazy thing called life. No, he wasn't the best-looking, yet, but i fell in love with his heart.

So you can understand the devastation I, and Rose felt, the day the Doctor as we knew him died. It wasn't Rose who looked into the heart of the TARDIS that day. It was me. All that knowledge and power coursing through me was intoxicating and for a few minutes i knew what it was like to have the power of the universe in my hands. It was during this time i accidentally gifted Jack with eternal life. My poor Bo. I didn't mean to 'curse' him the way i did. I simply meant to bring him back to life, but the TARDIS really only understood life in terms of the universe and since the universe never dies, so to does Jack. It is something i can never reverse, nor the TARDIS as he is now a fixed point in time and you don't go messing with those. With all this power coursing through me I was able to stop the Daleks, a little over-dramatically i must admit. She may not look it, but the TARDIS is quite the drama queen and she is very much into theatrics. Having her heart and her mind coursing through me that day, I found myself saying and doing things i would never say or do. But i did what i intended to do; save the Doctor. He had saved countless lives over countless years and for once, someone got to save him. All that power and knowledge coursing through me and it didn't tempt me in the slightest. The reason i wished to keep that which i had gained was that finally i understood the Doctor, and he knew it, but he was right. I was burning. To gain so much so quickly was overwhelming me and I was at risk of dying. The Doctor, my beautiful, brave Doctor, knew that and determined to once again save my life. Taking me in his arms, his lips moved agonisingly slow toward mine and the moment we kissed, i found true joy. I must admit that simply because it was so painful, i played down the kiss in the rewritten version of events. The Doctor, and therefore the universe, may never remember what happened that day but i do and to have him kiss Rose as he kissed me, even in a pretend memory, is to much to bear. The kiss we shared lasted for what felt like an eternity. Our lips found one another and moved as though they were one. We wrapped ourselves in an embrace so tight i couldn't tell where i ended and he started and for the longest time, there was nothing else but him and me and this feeling between us. To finally know in that moment that he felt at least something of what i did filled me with joy hotter than the knowledge burning my mind at that moment. We forgot where we were and why we were there and forgot also that Rose was watching. Nothing else existed. When we finally broke free i didn't faint as I created the memory to show, but watched as the Doctor calmly, with a look of utter acceptance, gave the TARDIS back her heart. Taking my hand and Rose's he lead us into the TARDIS and steered us toward home.

Once inside I knew something was wrong. He seemed distracted and didn't for a moment flatter myself into thinking it was because of our kiss. No, something was troubling my Doctor and fear gripped me. He started babbling about Barcelona and dogs with no noses and Rose and I looked at each other in concern. Trying to make sense of what he was saying, Rose asked what was going on and then he explained, quite badly, regeneration to us. As humans we don't really have a concept of regeneration. The closest we get might be reincarnation but its not the same, nowhere near. As he talked about having two heads or no head i took a step toward him. Shooting me a look, i stopped dead in my tracks. A look of pure grief, devastation and loss was etched over every feature. With that look it was as though he were saying goodbye and i hated myself instantly because i knew this was my fault. I had saved the universe from the daleks, yes, but at what cost? By saving my life was the man i loved about to lose his? I once again took a half step toward him but this time he smiled, just slightly, and told Rose and I that we had been fantastic. He said so much more than that but my memory fails at this point, i was so busy worrying about him. Glancing at me one last time, he complimented himself by saying he was fantastic too and was suddenly engulfed in a fantastic golden light. It looked like a sun exploding from every pore in his body and i cried out. Right before my eyes i saw his features twitch and shift and mould themselves into different positions. His physical shape changed also and the clothes he wore now seemed to large. In seconds it was over and before us stood a different man. And he was gorgeous.


End file.
